Xdesign builds websites on two major platforms: Squarespace and WordPress. Xdesign will recommend which of these two platforms will work best for your needs and goals.

We often use the metaphor of building a house when deciding on the platforms.

Squarespace: You can build a house in a large neighborhood with zero lot lines. It’s turnkey, and you can get any style house you want. However, you don’t have much room to add on, and sometimes, your HOA limits what you can/can’t do.

Or

WordPress: You can build a house on your own piece of land, hire your own architect and have room to grow down the road without worrying about neighbors and HOA rules. We can use Squarespace or WordPress to create a beautiful, mobile-friendly, high-functioning website. Choosing one of these platforms does not mean you’re settling on quality.

The two questions that help us decide which direction to take are: How many pages of content will there be, and what features are needed?

Let’s get into the specifics.

Pricing:

A Squarespace website is less expensive to build. There is very little traditional developer time for writing new code and testing features, so the total amount of time to get to launch is less, resulting in a reduced cost.

Time to Launch:

Squarespace: Typically takes 7-60 days to launch, pending the amount of content.

WordPress: 75-120 days to launch, pending the amount of content.

As mentioned above, Squarespace takes less development and testing time, thus, it also take less time to get a Squarespace to launch. If you’re in a hurry. Squarespace may be your best option.

Depending on the amount of content, we can launch a Squarespace website in 60-90 days. We can even launch it quicker (15-30 days or less) if the site is a single page or only a few pages.

A WordPress website takes longer because we go through a longer planning, sitemap and content process, as well as development and testing. Think about the building a house metaphor: Before we start building, we need to draw up the plans and make sure we’ve planned for growth.

SEO/Digital Advertising:

WordPress is the clear winner. There are more SEO tools available to leverage with WordPress. We can install numerous types of tracking mechanisms. We can also plug in countless APIs so that your HR software, CRM system, etc., is connected to the website.

While we can do some of these things with Squarespace, they are more limited in what is possible.

Content Mangement System:

If you’re going to constantly update your website with new information, add new services, edit pages, add new pages, and so on, especially with a team of people, WordPress is the clear winner.

Squarespace does not have a true CMS system. Yes, you can log in to your website to make changes. However, it is a “what you see is what you get” system. There are no drafts. Any edits you make and save are shown in real time on your website.

With WordPress, you can create drafts of edits to review and approve before they are live. You can also set different levels of permissions for users on what they can and can’t edit. With WordPress, we are also able to see permanent styles so that you can’t “mess up” the layout, fonts, sizes, etc., because they are locked down.

Security:

Both platforms are very widely used. Security is not a concern as these are not “fly by night” companies. We are not concerned about this when choosing a platform.

Mobile/Responsiveness:

We’ll never sacrifice design quality. Both platforms allow us to produce beautiful websites that look great on any phone, tablet or computer.

So, which should I pick?

Don't worry, we'll pick one for you. However, if you’re looking for a “postcard” or “brochure” type website with a contact form, about page, and a few simple pages, we recommend Squarespace. For anything above that, we recommend WordPress.